Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Chitty Chitty No Bang Bang!

John has finally returned from being on the road for 2+ weeks, so of course we started right back to working on the Lark. Hey, we're excited about it, what can we say? John figured out the wiring and installed the ignition switch...the moment of truth had arrived. Tracy chose to be behind the camera and John crawled across the floor of the Lark to turn the key and see what happened. While the car didn't start, the engine did turn over...a very positive sign! A little fiddling and we tried it again...same results. After the third or fourth time of taking turns trying to start it, John turned the key and....silence. Nothing happened. What could possibly have gone wrong in a manner of minutes that would cause everything to stop working? We checked the battery, the connections...no luck. Finally, we got on the trusty Studebaker Forum and sent out our dilemma to the Studebaker experts (see link below). Only when someone asked us whether our car was an automatic did the light bulb come on over John's head. He went out to the car and checked...sure enough, someone (here's where the finger pointing starts) had bumped the car into gear. Once safely back in the park position, we were able to get the engine to turn over again...but we still have not been able to get Karl running.

http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=25422

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just listened to the video, you are not getting any gas. Find and fix your oil leaks. Before trying to start it again.

And before doing to much else. Get a drop light, make sure you have the butterfly (the flap in the top of the carb held open. Then while looking down into the carb pull the throttle linkage back and forth. There should be a little squirt of gas each time you pull it back.

No gas, next step fill a small squirt can with gas, and fill the carb float bowl. You do this by squirting it down the small tube that sticks up out of the top of the carb. try not to over fill it.

Do not try and start it while your doing this, and for a few minutes afterwards.

If your engine should ever backfire and you have flames coming out of the carb keep your foot off the gas and crank the engine it will suck it down the intake where it belongs.

This car has been sitting a long time so work on getting it started outside the garage. And always have a fire ext. handy in case the fuel pump or one of those old hoses leaks at the wrong time.